A transfer-matrix method is developed for modeling a corrugated long-period fiber grating. Cladding-mode resonance in such a corrugated structure can be controlled by the applied tensile stress based on the photoelastic effect. A first-order vectorial perturbation expansion is used to derive the mode fields of the two basic regions under the strain-induced index perturbation. Because the etched cladding radius is much smaller than the unetched radius, the effect of the corrugated structure on cladding modes cannot be treated as a small perturbation. Thus the conventional coupled-mode theory is inadequate for the modeling of such a structure. Based on a self-consistent mode-matching technique, mode coupling within the corrugated structure can be described by a set of transfer matrices. We apply the formulation to the calculation of the transmission spectra of a corrugated long-period grating and compare the calculated with the experimental results. The transfer-matrix approach is found to account well for the features of the transmission spectra of the corrugated long-period gratings.