We present a tensor-network approach for the strong-coupling expansion of two-dimensional QCD with staggered quarks at non-zero chemical potential. After expanding the Boltzmann factor in the gauge and fermion actions, all gauge fields can be integrated out exactly and the partition function can be evaluated using the Grassmann higher-order tensor renormalization group approach. The method is modified to compute the $\mu$ dependence of the quark number density and the chiral condensate up to order $\beta^3$ with complete absence of higher-order terms infiltrating the result. Although the expansion itself is only a good approximation to the full theory at small $\beta<0.1$, the range can be extended, by using judiciously chosen fits. Moreover, these fits also yield a valuable expansion in $\beta$ for the critical chemical potential.