This paper demonstrates, for the first time to our best knowledge, the application of a tunable external-cavity fiber Bragg grating diode laser in spectroscopic chemical sensing. A tunable fiber Bragg grating external-cavity semiconductor laser is demonstrated with over 10 nm of tuning range. A piezoactuator was implemented to stretch the grating for rapid wavelength tuning of the laser. The application of such low-cost tunable FBG lasers in spectroscopic chemical sensing was demonstrated in acetylene gas with a wavelength modulation spectroscopy technique.