Cutters in tunnel boring machines (TBMs) suffer low rock-breaking efficiency and severe wear when encountering hard rocks with high strength, hardness, and abrasivity. Interestingly, some rock-dwelling organisms such as limpets excrete organic substances to corrode rocks so that they can bore the rock, which is called bio-erosion. Herein, we reported a bio-inspired rock-breaking strategy that utilizes rock corrosion by organic complexing agent to facilitate hard rock breakage and reduce cutter wear. Inspired by bio-erosion, a neutral organic complexing agent was prepared using oxalic acid as the main component. The complexing agent is basically noncorrosive to H13 steel (a commonly used cutter material), but it causes corrosion of granite rock (a typical hard rock) by dissolving mineral crystals, thereby inducing secondary defects and rock mechanical degradation. Simulated rock-breaking test results show that compared with the deionized water condition, under the complexing agent condition, when the cutter rolls against the granite rock, crushed zones are more easily formed on the rock surface due to the complexing agent-induced rock mechanical degradation, which improves the utilization efficiency of energy in the process of rock-breaking and facilitates the rock spalling. Rock corrosion and mechanical degradation also contribute to reducing the wear loss of cutter ring. As a result, the cutter exhibits lower specific energy and specific wear under the complexing agent condition than under the deionized water condition, indicating a higher rock-breaking efficiency and lower cutter consumption. The proposed biomimetic rock-breaking strategy demonstrates great promise for advancing the performance of TBMs in hard rock formations.